Wednesday, January 28, 2026

How does AI even work? Where does creativity come from? What's the secret to living longer? Ted Radio Hour explores the biggest questions with some of the world's greatest thinkers. They will surprise challenges. Listen to NPR's Ted Radio Hour wherever you get your podcast. Good afternoon, I'm Lisa Lopez and this is the Rundown.

The group National Nurses United is hosting a candlelight vigil and rally in Chicago tonight in honor of Alex Predi's life. And he also was a nurse at a VA hospital. Heather Fallon is a registered nurse at a VA hospital in North Chicago.

And told our say more program that organizers want to turn grief into action. We want to band together to build that strength within our community to move forward, to not just mourn the death of Alex Predi, but to organize in defense of our communities, in defense of Chicago. National Nurses United is also calling for a halt in funding to immigration and customs enforcement.

The state of Illinois is teaming up with a Chicago based charity to operate the first statewide abortion fund ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three and a half years ago Illinois has received an influx of patients from all across the country seeking abortion care. Local groups, including the Chicago Abortion Fund, say they have since upped their operations to offer out of state patients more financial and travel help. Megan Jaifo, who heads the Chicago Abortion Fund,

says the new statewide fund builds on a model that works. It is a commitment to sustaining the infrastructure that allows Illinois not only to meet this moment. But to model what abortion access and access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care must look like nationally. The fund will also offer grant money to smaller abortion funds across the state.

Second term Chicago Alderperson Byron Sigcho Lopez is mounting an independent bid for Congress. My colleague Sam Knofsker reports the forty two year old Ecuadorian born Alder is seeking a spot on the fall ballot for the fourth congressional district. That district includes parts of Chicago, suburban Cook County, and Eastern DuPage County. The seat became open after US Representative Jesus Chewy Garcia's fall announcement that he would not seek reelection.

Garcia swung his support to his aide Patty Garcia, who had been gathering signatures at the time to run for the seat as a Democrat. Sigcho Lopez says he was not waiting for the Democratic Party to give his permission to seek the seat. There's a pro sport coming back to Chicago. My colleague Brandon Condritz has that story. Softball got its start in Chicago.

So it's fitting that some of the country's best players and coaches met at the Chicago Sports Museum on Wednesday to announce that the Chicago Bandits are back. The women's pro team disbanded in 2021, but they're officially returning as part of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League. First round draft pick Lexi Kilfoyle says it's a big win for women's sports.

Having the platform that we do to show girls that they can dream of being a professional athlete and that they can make a career out of it is honestly a dream come true and I hope that we can continue to show these girls that anything is possible and they can dream absolutely anything. Opening day is June ninth at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont. Brandon Condritz, WB Easy News. You're listening to the Rundown.

Deportation efforts since President Trump took office have torn apart thousands of families. and for some an immigration arrest follows other traumas. In a West Suburban School District, one administrator heard that two of her former students were in crisis and she tried to help. My colleague Chip Mitchell has that story. At first, Edith Rivera Corrington's interactions with these two students were routine.

All part of her job. She was the assistant superintendent for English learners in the district that covers Westmont. It was the fall of twenty twenty three. Part of my role is supporting our our newcomers. When they enroll in our district, we have a protocol in place. to get to know who they are, where they come from, what their needs are.

We have an interview, we uh find out what they know, we find out kind of what they've been through in the process of getting here. The students were Diego and Rosa, brother and sister, fourteen and thirteen. Here's what Edith found out they had been through before coming from central Mexico. Mom had passed away from cancer. Lung cancer, a year and a half earlier. And then uh when Dad was picking up Viego from school. He was shot. He was murdered. Riddled with bullets right there at the school.

Diego and Rosa had no immediate family left in Mexico. What they had was an older brother in the US. Federico was nineteen. He'd made it to the Chicago area where they had an aunt. Diego and Rosa had never met her in person, but they followed their brother. So in Westmott schools, Edith helped get Diego going in ninth grade, Rosa in eighth grade.

The boy seemed to be having a harder time adjusting to his life in the States, his life without parents. Diego was just so sweet and so kind and so intelligent. And had all these hopes and dreams and I saw him carrying the weight of the world. You know, just in how he talks about he has to he has to help his brother and I don't know, it just isn't fair. Federico, the brother, he'd found a job in a furniture factory. He was working long hours to save for an apartment.

Eventually he and the two kids were able to move from their aunt's place. Federico paid the bills, drove them to school, helped with homework. That apartment was outside Edith's school district. She no longer had any official connection to the kids, but I would check in on them, see how they were doing.

So I remember they came over to like pick up a couch that I gave them. So a year and a half went by and this past November Edith heard about some immigration enforcement affecting former students of her district. I was like Please don't tell me it's Diego and Rosa. Like, how can this be that another tragedy? is upon them. Like how is this even possible?

It was possible. ICE agents had taken away Federico on his way to work. Federico, the big brother, the only parent Diego and Rosa had. You know, there are some students you you get to work with a lot of students and a lot of families. And some just stay with you. I think when you're an educator sometimes sometimes stories hit you both professionally and personally. You know, and I think I think this case did that for me.

Without Federico, Diego and Rosa had a hard time. They could no longer stay in their apartment. I mean not only are they minors but they they weren't able to pay for rent. no longer able to get to and from school. The school spoke with their aunt. The aunt agreed to take in Diego and Rosa, but she and her husband had their own kids, one recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

They had just one income, the husband's a landscaper, and they didn't have permission to be in the US, they didn't feel secure. Three semanas practicamente sin salir de casa. The aunt says they didn't leave the house for weeks. They were they were very nervous. I mean they weren't even going to the grocery store. They were they were terrified. Edith hadn't seen Diego and Rosa for a while. They were long gone from the school district. She helped run. But she couldn't just sit and watch.

I became determined to do whatever I possibly could. To give them some hope, to give them some relief. to bring some positivity into their lives to help them through this. Edith reached out to food pantries. She asked Diego and Rosa for a wish list, anything they wanted. And if you would have seen this list, I I'm not kidding when I saw this list I'm like they want soccer. They want socks, they want to toiletries, they they just

They don't want to be a burden on the aunt. Edith took Diego, he was now in eleventh grade. She took him to the apartment complex where he and Rosa had lived with Federica, their brother. She helped get him out of that lease. So Edith did all those things for her former students. But Federico remained an immigration detention. He needed legal representation.

So Edith found a Chicago nonprofit that provided a pro bono attorney. The kids, Diego and Rosa, they hoped the feds would release Federico by Christmas time, on bond maybe, or asylum, or humanitarian parole. Something. But that didn't happen and so they were sad. So at that point, when I knew that he would not be out for Christmas and I knew that and

was going to have to come up with gifts for everyone, right? And meals and all of it. Um that's when I did the group text. A message to her friends and family. I I put it out there and just said if You want to make someone's Christmas a little a little brighter. I know I know a family that could use it. That message raised thirteen hundred dollars for Diego and Rosa.

This is this is what I was brought up to do. This is what what my parents taught me. This is what we should be doing for each other. If there's someone in Just help that applies to everyone in your circle, and it is also your responsibility to extend yourself out to those maybe not in your circle. I don't think that. that has to be political, I think it's just kindness. Weeks later, Federico is still in detention. On february nineteenth, his attorney says it's his last shot to avert deportation.

His sister, Rosa, she has an immigration case of her own. Downtown. She's getting a ride from Edith, someone who's showing a little kindness. Yeah. Weather sunny and very cold, high in the mid-teens, with a wind chill as low as 10 degrees below zero. Tonight partly cloudy with a lone near one, and wind chill around 11 below, and then Thursday sunshine high again in the mid-teens.

You can find the latest news whenever you want at WBEZ.org or on your radio at ninety-one point five FM. I'm Lisa Lopez. Thank you for listening.